Eight people have been arrested and 23 kg of drugs have been seized following the searches of six Lower Mainland homes by the RCMP’s drug squad.

Three federal parolees were among the eight people arrested in the drug trafficking sting by the RCMP’s Federal Drug Enforcement Branch on April 4.

The investigators seized about 20 kg of cocaine, two tons of toxic and flammable methamphetamine chemical precursor, a kilogram of methamphetamine and two kilograms of marijuana, as well as a pill press at an East Vancouver home. Three cars and $250,000 in cash also was seized.

The raid involved the search of six homes with the assistance of the Burnaby and Surrey RCMP detachments.

The three parolees, 44-year-old Allen Brian Fehr of Burnaby, 44-year-old Lance Trevor Pettman of Kelowna and 49-year-old James Peter Jenner of Winnipeg were arrested and have been returned to prison.

Two other men and three women from Vancouver and Burnaby were also arrested.

A police press release said the arrested men and women will likely face drug charges. Police said the investigation is “by no means over” and that investigators are still determining the scope of the group’s operations “from both a geographic and volume perspective.”

Fehr had previously been arrested in Surrey in 1998 on drug trafficking charges after he was the subject of an undercover police drug buy sting. In his car, police found a kilogram of cocaine, 15 kg of marijuana, almost 10 lb. of methamphetamine, 13 lb. of psilocybin mushrooms and 1.5 lb. of hashish. He was charged on 15 drug-related charges, was found guilty on seven counts in 2000 and given an eight-year jail sentence.
Pettman was arrested for armed robbery in Calgary in October 2002 after a Bank of Nova Scotia branch was hit by thieves and was charged on four counts of robbery involving two bank branches, a liquor store and a bar.

Jenner was previously arrested in April 2002 in Winnipeg with 17 kg of cocaine stashed in a storage locker in his name. At the time, it was a record-breaking amount of cocaine, and the city’s largest seizure ever. He was convicted on drug trafficking charges and given an eight-year jail sentence.